What’s Next for Final Fantasy XIV?

Nearly two months has passed since Square-Enix cast a Phoenix Down on the much-maligned Final Fantasy XIV and re-introduced it to the world as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Despite a few speed-bumps early in the rebranding process, the game has been received well both critically and commercially.

A Realm Reborn’s development has had a single, overarching theme: “change.” In what’s certainly a departure for the old guard at Square-Enix, the company has kept players in the loop through its Letter from the Producer series, highlighting upcoming features and balance tweaks.

This theme of change extends beyond rebuilding the game’s broken version 1.0 - Square-Enix is promising frequent major additions to the world of Eorzea. So what can players expect from A Realm Reborn in the near future? Simply put: more of everything.

Noticeably absent at launch was one of the two endgame raid dungeons announced for A Realm Reborn prior to the game’s release. Towering over the battle-weary fields of Mor Dhona stands the Crystal Tower, a mass raid endgame dungeon designed to prepare players for the notoriously difficult Coil of Bahamut.

Originally scheduled to be released at launch, the Tower was held back for the upcoming 2.1 release. Designed as the only raid dungeon in the game to be tackled by an alliance of 24 players (three teams of eight), the Crystal Tower is a throwback to the final dungeon of Final Fantasy III and is rumored to contain enemies and bosses familiar to players who conquered Final Fantasy III (including Xande, Hein, and the Cloud of Darkness). While little else is known about the dangers that await players inside the gigantic structure, it is known that parties will not be tackling the dangers of the Crystal Tower as a cohesive unit - at least not at first. Instead, each party of eight will be entering the structure from a different point on the map, setting up some potentially interesting situations for teams to assist each other in accessing different areas of the Tower.

Finally, Square-Enix has confirmed that the Tower is not designed to be completed in a single sitting, so raiders can expect to spend plenty of time inside its crystal walls. Entrance requirements for the Crystal Tower are a bit sketchy at the moment, but a relic weapon is most likely a necessity - better keep farming those Tomestones!

A Player Housing system is also being introduced in FF XIV’s 2.1 update. Eventually allowing players to purchase individual houses of three different sizes, at first this feature will be limited to Free Companies only. While rumored to be incredibly expensive, owning a home offers several significant benefits, including up to 380 different decorations, chocobo raising (of which very little is known about at this time), the ability to acquire various crafting and leveling buffs via housing structures, and more.

At TGS, A Realm Reborn’s Producer Naoki Yoshida mentioned that plans are in the works to implement common workspaces allowing players to work together to craft larger items (as opposed to just single-player equipment).

PvP

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’s PvP implementation, known as The Wolves’ Den, will be making an appearance in the very near future. Designed for 8v8 and 4v4 battles and accessible through Duty Finder, both existing groups and matched groups will be able to battle it out for glory and in-game rewards. Specific gear will be available to wear during PvP matches, and the team is working on implementing equipment and other rewards that can only be earned through winning PvP skirmishes. How existing PvE gameplay systems will be balanced to support PvP is still not entirely clear, though Yoshida did mention that certain player skills will not be available during PvP.

New Primal Battle

Players sick of battling Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan, rejoice! Square-Enix has announced that another Primal will be available to challenge beginning with the 2.1 update, and it’s none other than Good King Moogle Mog XII, Primal of the Moogles! In the original Final Fantasy XIV, this Primal was responsible for dropping several unique moogle-themed weapons, though it’s not known at this time whether these drops will return in A Realm Reborn. According to Yoshida, Good King Moogle Mog XII will be accessible through the Duty Finder to be challenged by full parties of 8 characters. This quest will be available to players who have reached level 50.

In addition to these major upgrades being added to A Realm Reborn in the near future, several minor tweaks are also in the works. These include daily quests for experience and gil, treasure hunting, a new extreme difficulty level for existing Primal bosses Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan (with new rewards to match), a Content Finder that allows players to match up for specific non-dungeon content and earn tokens which can be used to purchase exclusive rewards, and a Beauty Parlor for changing a character’s hairstyle and tattoos. Additional FATE and dungeon content are also in the pipeline, though few details concerning this content have been released thus far.

Beyond 2.1

We don’t know Square-Enix’s longterm plan for FF XIV, but suggestions continue to flow into Square-Enix from the player community - some of which have been explicitly acknowledged by the development team. The suggested items include the ability to stay active in Duty Finder when a chocobo companion is present (currently players in parties, including those with just a single player character and a computer-controlled companion, cannot be queued in Duty Finder), allowing chocobo companions to fill empty slots during dungeon runs, and a capability for resetting healer, DPS, and tank skills assigned to a chocobo companion.

Players have also requested the inclusion of several iconic jobs in the Final Fantasy series, including Red Mage and Dark Knight, along with additional base classes to support their inclusion into A Realm Reborn. Yoshida has mentioned a desire to include additional casting jobs like Red Mage and Blue Mage, as well as more stealth-oriented occupations like Thief and Ninja.

Perhaps most exciting of all is Square-Enix’s plan to bring Final Fantasy VII’s Gold Saucer to the realm of Eorzea. One of FF VII’s most memorable diversions, the Gold Saucer was a casino-esque amusement park where players could participate in arena battles, race chocobos, gamble, and play several unique minigames. According to Yoshida, the development team was tasked with creating at least three minigame attractions for this version of the Gold Saucer.

Next-Gen Bound

Following the game’s strong reception across both PC and PS3, Square-Enix is keen to expand into the next console generation in the not-so-distant future as well. Square-Enix recently announced that players of the PS3 version of A Realm Reborn will be offered the chance to upgrade to the PS4 version free of charge when it launches next year - another first for the Japanese company.

With Square-Enix continuing to take an active role in evolving and improving both customer experience as well as the game itself, this reborn Final Fantasy world looks to be getting even better. There’s never been a better time to become an adventurer in Eorzea.

Michael Migliacio is one part software engineer and one part freelancer. You can follow him on Twitter at @angstygaijin.